Friends
by Delita-chan
Summary: 8-year old Glenn meets his first real friend outside of Dario, Riddel and Karsh...a little girl with similar troubles like Glenn. Sweet story for those of you Glenn fans out there.


Friends  
  
  
  
  
The little 8-year old boy held the ball out to his 15-year old brother. A toothy grin plastered across the boy's face cheerfully. He was pretty optimistic that big brother surely would play with him.  
  
The 15-year old youth turned and looked down at his little brother. For a boy that age, the 15 year old boy stood very tall and built, more like an 18 year old. Immediately, he was greeted with that boy's charming little smile, then shook his head with a sigh.  
  
"Play ball...please, big brother...? Play ball with me!" begged the little boy, his big blue eyes shining brightly at his older brother. He held out the ball as far as his plumpish hands could, pushing it against his big brother's pants.  
  
"Oh...I...I'm sorry, Glenn," started the older boy, frowning as he pushed the ball away gently. The second he said that, he could see his younger brother's eyes grow wide and his toothy grin turned to a frown.  
  
Little Glenn backed away slightly. He looked down at the ball in his hands, completely dismayed. The older boy noticed Glenn's head was hung so low, only his messy dirty-blonde hair showed. He wished he could say something to him...  
  
But Glenn just lifted his head, the smile back on his face as he turned to the other boy standing next to his big brother. He walked up to the purple-hair boy and held up the ball to him just like he did before.  
  
"Karsh, you play with me, right? Big Brother Dario never wants to play, he's a big meanie!"  
  
Karsh leaned over and ruffled Glenn's hair affectionately. "Sorry kiddo, Dario and I are due for sword practice soon with Mr. Radius and Mr. Garai."  
  
"Yes...Glenn we've already told you before that Karsh and I have sword practice everyday at this time. We're going to be busy training from now on to become Devas like our fathers once were." Dario shook head. He looked at Glenn's pouting face, hoping that at least he'd understand why he and his best friend were never around. Father talked to you about this before, so you should know not to expect us to be free." This time, Glenn appeared close to tears. Dario hated doing this to his little brother; he understood that a person's childhood was just as important as anything else, even being a Deva but try telling that to their father, Garai. Garai knew that he was taking much of Glenn's childhood, but he simply insisted that Glenn make some new friends. However, being that Glenn was the Glenn who spilled his drink in every restaurant he attended, planted frogs in the shops around Termina, eating other children's lunches, stealing their toys, involving them in trouble and just being plain annoying around the community, he doubted it very much. Everyone in the town knew how mischievous Glenn was so most of the children made it a point to keep their distance from him, thus, leaving him with little or no friends at all.  
  
Glenn frowned. "But that's not fair!" he retorted. "You ALWAYS have to practice! It's not fair, not fair, not FAIR!!"  
  
"Glenn, come on now, why don't you just stay indoors today and color..."  
  
"I DON'T WANT TO COLOR!!! I WANT TO PLAY BALL!!" Glenn began to wail very loudly. He wanted to run outside, catch the wind in his face and let out some energy! Besides, he'd already smashed all one hundred of his crayons in the heat of an earlier tantrum.  
  
Karsh covered his ears. "Glenn, that's enough, please! We've already told you that we're busy."  
  
He stuck his tongue out at him. "Then I'll ask Riddel to play with me!! She always likes playing with me!"  
  
Dario scratched his head and sighed heavily. His little brother wasn't going to like this one bit.  
  
"Riddel's supposed to help her father with some matters back at the manor," he said. "But..but maybe she'll play with you later on this evening!"  
  
Glenn was not one bit satisfied. His big blue eyes held tears of frustration. "Why are all of you so mean to me!! Why did Daddy buy me this stupid ball if no one was going to play with me?" His wailing grew so loud that people outside the little room began to look through the windows. Karsh and Dario only exchanged glances.  
  
"...I'm sorry little brother...I truly am. I promise to make this up to you..."  
  
"I hate you ALL!! I wish Mommy was still alive!" he screamed.   
  
"Glenn---!" Dario yelled. But Glenn had already run out of the room in tears.  
  
  
Glenn ran down the city of Termina, with the big green ball in his hands. His tears for the most part had dried off but he was still very mad at everyone back at home. Didn't they understand he was lonely? Didn't they know tired he got of coloring in all those stupid coloring books at home? He wanted to run and play, like every kid in Termina did.  
  
Glenn stopped by a small shop, looking around him. There were kids in the distance playing hopscotch. Perhaps if he persuaded them enough...  
  
He shook his head and looked down at the ball sadly. Those children would not play with him; they'd only pick on him or run away in fear of being his next target. Glenn knew that he had quite a reputation around town for causing quite a bit of trouble, especially to the children. Many of their parents warned them about how naughty Glenn could become and if they were caught when he was caught, it would bring about more problems. To make matters worse, the children all suspected that he liked to steal their toys, although they had no solid proof of that. Toys just seemed to disappear when Glenn came around.  
  
The shop door where Glenn stood opened and out stepped a little girl. She looked rather upset.  
  
"Daddy, you're such a meanie! I'm going to go out and never come back!" cried the little girl, closing the door behind her. She then stood by the entrance of the shop, making sure to stay out of the way of other customers coming in. Glenn blinked in surprise at the little girl; she appeared to be his age. She had long blonde hair tied into pigtails loosely hanging over her shoulders and wore a dark blue dress that matched her own eyes. He wondered what was going on there; why was she so upset?   
  
The girl then sat down, hugging her knees. She didn't seem to notice Glenn and his ball even though he wasn't far from her. Glenn thought for a moment and pondered at whether he should ask her to play with him or not. She certainly didn't look familiar, or like any of the kids he'd scared off in Sunday school. But maybe her parents didn't want her near him; maybe she'd heard all about him.  
  
Glenn sat down on the little grass patch not far from her and looked on straight ahead. Maybe she'd notice him with the ball and ask to play with him. It was worth a shot.  
  
The little girl shifted her gaze from the dumb youngsters who were trying to jump off the high tower in front of the shop to Glenn and his big, round ball. She gazed at him for several minutes without saying a word. Glenn himself felt her gaze and became nervous; he hated it when others stared at him, especially for so long! So he turned to look at the little girl, who had dried off her tears. She had a finger on her mouth and blushed when he'd looked at her. However she stared back at him for several minutes as he hugged the ball tightly. Perhaps she wasn't going to play with him but tease him instead.  
  
The little girl leaned her head a little, examining Glenn's ball. It looked like a lot of fun to play with; so why was he just sitting there staring at her? What if he didn't want to play with a girl? She knew from experience that a lot of the boys in Termina didn't like having female playmates. But she really wanted to play with someone.  
  
"Hey...that's a really cool ball..." she spoke finally after gawking at him for god knows how long. Glenn looked up, startled that she'd actually spoken. He figured that after a few more moments of ignoring her, she'd just give up and go away. However, he was glad that she'd broken the ice between them.  
  
"Thanks. Daddy gave it to me for my birthday, along with some other cool toys!" he declared, proudly holding up the ball for her to see better. The girl stood up and trotted over to him, then bent over to look closer at it. In reality, the ball was nothing more than a plastic cheap thing, which had only costed about 100 gil, but Garai knew that Glenn loved playing with balls.   
  
"For your birthday? Cool. I wish my Daddy would buy me one too," she said.  
  
"Why doesn't he buy you one?"  
  
"Because..." she began, looking away from him and his ball. "...because Daddy's always busy with the shop. He says his customers are important."  
  
"Oh...you should take the money when he's not looking and go buy one! Then you can play all you want!" Being the naughty boy he was, Glenn knew it was something he'd do if he'd ever been in the situation. "It's not too much money and your dad would never know the difference! Get the money now and I'll go with you to buy one!"  
  
The girl frowned. "It's an idea. But if I bought a ball, Daddy will wonder where it came from."  
  
"Hide it with your other toys! Why, I-" Glenn stuttered a bit, wondering if he should tell her. He shrugged and continued. "I stole a lot of toys from the kids that hang by the General Viper's statue, mainly all of their dragoon action figures, and I always keep them hidden. When Daddy and Dario are gone, I take them out and play with them all by myself!" He stood up and smiled smug and proud. So what if she knew he was the famous bandit who snatched up toys when the little ones weren't looking? If she went and told on him, he'd just take the toys to the backyard and bury them. They'd never find his treasures then! If he could not have them, they wouldn't either!  
  
She only shook her head though, her blonde pigtails swinging back and forth. "Nah...even if I got one, who would play with me? I don't have a brother or sister and Daddy's always with the stupid shop! He's such a meanie!" she exclaimed, kicking a rock some distance. Glenn blinked. Wow, she's mad, but I know how she feels. Daddy's so mean for not playing with me! All Dads are meanies!  
  
"How come your daddy won't play with you after he closes the store? I have never seen the element shop close late." Glenn asked.  
  
"Because when Daddy closes up the shop, he always goes into Shadow Forest to pick stupid mushrooms! He promises to play with me the next day but its the same thing everyday!" she said, sitting directly in front of Glenn. She hugged her knees tightly, leaning her head on them.  
  
"Oh...that's not fair," said Glenn. His mischievous eyes then lit up. "Hey I know, why don't you steal some elements and bury them somewhere outside this town? It won't do much but it feels better getting revenge!"  
  
The girl blinked in confusion. Then she giggled. "Yeah...I always do something mean to Daddy. I tore down an ad poster once." She looked at Glenn seriously. "Hey, you sound like if you have the same problem. Is your daddy mean?"  
  
Glenn nodded, hugging the ball tighter. He placed his chin on it while gazing at her. "Yeah. My Daddy's a Deva!"  
  
"Oh cool beans!! That's so excellent!"  
  
"It's not so cool because he never has time to play with me. Everyday he makes my big brother Dario do some stupid Dragoon training and all. Dario is mean too! When training is over, he always hangs out with his stupid friend Karsh and Daddy's always keeping his old friend Radius company! It's not fair!"  
  
The girl's blue eyes looked at him with concern. "I'm sorry...I really am. You know, you should tell your brother to pretend to be sick so that he doesn't have to go to his training."  
  
Glenn laughed. "I should do that. But then Daddy will stay home too and he'll catch us playing."  
  
"Darn! Well don't you have any friends from school lessons?"  
  
"Yes I do!" Glenn fibbed. "I...well...they're all busy! They play stupid games anyway." He knew very well that none of them even wanted to play with someone who often got them into trouble with their parents.  
  
"Really? You're lucky...my best friend lives in Arni village. She's too busy playing with her boy-friend. And Daddy never lets me go to Arni by myself. He says the Boogey-man will come out in Fossil Valley and eat bad little girls who travel alone," the girl said, shaking her head.  
  
"There's a Boogey-man in Fossil Valley? Coo...! Does he eat little boys too?"   
  
"I don't know. Daddy just says he eats bad little girls like me. We can go see right now if you want. I'm not really a bad little girl, so maybe he won't eat me!"  
  
Glenn shuddered and hugged his ball so tightly it would burst any second. Garai often told him he was a bad little boy. The Boogey-Man would surely eat him if he went down there by himself! No way he was going to go down there and find out!  
  
"N...naw...I think I will just sit here..."  
  
"Yeah...maybe the Boogey-Man is busy anyway..."  
  
Glenn smiled mischievously. "I'll kick him in the nuts if I ever see him!"  
  
The little girl simply giggled along with him. After she stopped, she looked at him again, her blue eyes shining with glee.  
  
"Well if we're not going to see the Boogey-Man, could I ...play with your ball too? That is, if you want to..."  
  
Glenn's ears perked up and he looked at her, a smile spreading across his baby face. "Yeah! Would you really? Really really really?"  
  
She nodded. "Mm-hmm! We can play catch!"  
  
"Coo!" He stood up excitedly. "I throw an mean throw, though...but just because you're a girl, I'll go easy on you!"  
  
"I'll show you!" declared the girl, standing up and dusting the grass blades off her dress.  
  
"Alright. We'll see...um...what's your name, by the way? Mine's Glenn."  
  
The girl smiled and placed her hands behind her back shyly. "My name is Lisa. Nice to meet you, Glenn."  
  
He nodded, then started bouncing the ball on the grass. "Lisa. Coo' name. Hey, after we play, do you want to come over and see the cool toys I got for my birthday?"  
  
"Yeah!!" she cried, jumping up in excitement. "Will you show me the toys you stole too? I promise I won't tell anyone."  
  
Glenn nodded. "If you don't tell no one. Not even big brother."  
  
"Do you have clay-dough?" [author's note: I hate it when people call Play-dough, "clay-dough".]  
  
"Lots of it!" he exclaimed, hoping that she would come over everyday instead of just now. "I have the Pizza maker too. We can trick Daddy to eat the clay pizzas."  
  
Lisa giggled insanely. "Yeah...so let's play, I'm getting anxious!"  
  
"Ok...hey...listen, Lisa?" Glenn gazed at her seriously. Maybe she would say yes.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Um...well...just so the Boogey-Man won't get us, can we...be friends?"  
  
Lisa began to giggle again. "Yes. If it means I can play with you everyday. Maybe we can go down to Fossil Valley someday and kick the Boogey-Man in the nuts!"  
  
Glenn began laughing, a few snorts escaping. Often when he laughed in this manner, other kids picked on him, especially the girls. Girls thought it was gross. However Lisa laughed harder, not at him but with him. He noticed that he made her laugh and started to snort purposely. It was cool that she was the only other girl besides Riddel who didn't think snorting was gross.  
  
"I'll meet you here everyday! Then we can get him later! Deal?"   
  
"Deal! Now throw that ball!" she cried as she began to run off.  
  
Glenn nodded and ran until he caught up to her. The two then ran out into the grass fields outside of Termina, holding hands.  
  
  
Author's Notes: This is not a pairing. I know some of you think so already, but its not. I just think that this kind of scenario is very possible. Another thing: I'm not a Glenn fan either. ^_^ But this is for those who asked for one. I can be reached at delita_chan@hotmail.com  



End file.
